ItoaSwinging Flavors #4

Indie and Italian, Beat Machine Records has released an impressive array of electronica in just four years. Building on a catalogue of mixtapes and vinyl LPs, their latest series drops singles methodically: they put three out last year, and the first of 2017 is Swinging Flavors #4.

This newest chapter is a single and its remix. It's really Itoa's seven-inch, though: he bakes two beautiful anthems into the three-song release. "This Tune" is a digital bonus, which adds depth to the jungle of "Strange Attractor."

The A-side relies on Itoa's command of drum'n'bass, which demonstrates a decade's worth of sharpening skills. The song is deeply jungle-ish, with drums both soggy and sharp and a mad flute that turns spines into jelly. It's easy to understand why the Londoner has the same name as a C++ function: he's adept at turning numbers into characters and translating concepts into feelings.

Almost as if he was creating beats in another language, Sully turns the single on its head. The veteran beat-maker, who DJs around the world, easily pulls the song apart and reassembles it as another, strangely irresistible tune: less dance, more trance. Deteriorating bursts of drum on now-murky flute transforms "Strange Attractor" into a grimy, dark creation, with maddening laughter and tinny echoes peppered throughout the beat. Sully defends his status as a staple, going his own way on Itoa's work.

"This Tune," which ends the trio, is a banger made anxious with belligerent samples and truly dizzying percussion that shouldn't be confined to the club. Not only is the series shaping up well, so is the production of Itoa — which has been known to induce grinning.
(Beat Machine)